Why Hasn't There Been a Woman in the NFL?

April Goss agrees that women in the NFL will go through emotional and physical challenges. Goss it the second woman to score in a major college football game. She played for Kent State and scored for her team in 2015. Goss says the first woman to go into the NFL will need to have drive, passion and talent.

But Goss believes there hasn’t been a woman in the NFL because of the absence of women in the collegiate football level.

“One percent of athletes play college football and 1 percent of those athletes actually go to the NFL. So when we actually look at the numbers, it makes sense that there has not been a female in the league yet because there are not enough girls pursuing it. So I think we do unfortunately have a long way to go but I think that the possibility is definitely there,” Goss said. 

She says the possibility is there once a female on high school and football teams are “more commonplace.”

“What always frustrated me as an athlete is I was always seen as a female football player rather than a football player who happened to be female as if my gender represented who I was and represented any type of talent I had. I think when we get past this whole fixation on ‘OK, she’s a girl. We have to make a big deal out of this,’ and we just focus on the athlete themselves and their abilities, then I think women in this field will be more respected,” Goss said.

Howie Long Jr., scout for the Oakland Raiders, is an advocate for equality in “about every aspect of life,” but he says this matter isn’t about equality though.

“This would mean putting women in physical harm or danger just to create some false sense of equality. That is why there are women’s sports and men’s sports, which I don’t think is sexist or promotes inequality whatsoever,” Long said.

Long says he has often heard the argument that women could be kickers, punters or even wide receivers’ due to being similar in size. But he doesn’t agree. He says the common perception of NFL kickers and punters is that they are smaller and not as athletic as the rest of the team.

“This is actually false. Most kickers and punters were tremendous all-state players at different positions, but ultimately had the best chance making it to the NFL by switching positions. Kickers in the NFL are supposed to make 50-yard field goals with ease now, due to their tremendous leg strength. I just think it all comes down to the enormous disparity in size and strength,” Long said.

Kris Brannon and Demetria “The Beast” Hardiman both own the Los Angeles Bobcats, one of the 17 teams in the Independent Women’s Football League. They held an annual NFL women’s football camp at the Rancho Cienega Sports Complex in Los Angeles. 

They, and their teammates, have conflicting opinions. Some of their teammates believe only men should play in the NFL, but hope for a professional women’s football league to be created in the future. Others believe they haven’t been given the opportunity and that women are just as good at football as the men are.

“I just think that because it is a male-dominated sport, I think that men have this way of thinking that women cannot do what men can do,” Brannon said. “There are a lot of good ladies that are very strong, but I think that testosterone, that chemical that we don’t have is something that is keeping us from being in the NFL.”

The highest level of testosterone in women’s bodies is only 6 percent of men’s highest testosterone level. Not only do they naturally produce more testosterone, men in the NFL have been found guilty of taking performance-enhancing drugs, such as HGH. 

According to Sportrac, 19 men in the NFL have been caught and suspended for taking PEDs in the 2017-2018 season so far. The league does not release information of the abuse of PEDs publicly, so this number is only based on news reports.

If a woman joins the NFL, she will have to be prepared to compete against men with natural or stimulated high levels of testosterone.

But Brannon believes women have one advantage.

“I think women just want to learn more. We’re like sponges and we soak everything up. I think because guys have been playing real young, by the time they get 18 or 19 years old, they think they have it all figured out. Well we know for sure we don’t have it all figured out. A lot of women are going to give coaches a better effort than most guys will because we are just that way,” Brannon said.

Hardiman believes the NFL does not think women are as athletic, as competitive nor as strong as men in the professional football league.

“I say give us a chance,” Hardiman said. “We grew up playing ball in school with the boys. Some of the girls out in college with the boys, so why not give us an opportunity to get out there with the NFL.”

But Brannon and Hardiman agree on one thing: There won’t be a woman in the NFL anytime soon. Hardiman believes women have a “long fight to go.” Brannon believes “America isn’t ready yet” due to the gender inequality in the United States and not getting the recognition women deserve. 

“I think at this point, I am just hoping to see another woman play at the Division 1 level,” Goss said.

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, in the 2016-2017 high school football season, there were 2,143 girls playing football along with 1,086,720 boys. And the number of girls playing football increases each year.

Jennifer Ibarra, a kicker for the Garfield High School football team in East LA, was the first woman to play and score for her team. She played her senior year during the 2017-2018 season. She hopes to play soccer in college, but she has hope for female football players.

“Throughout the years, football has been known for men and I feel like women don’t have that kind of confidence to be on a football team. So it makes them feel like an underdog,” Ibarra said. “I believe that women should get the chance to play football, like any sport.”

Gabriel Rico, Ibarra’s kicker coach, has been coaching for 20 years at Garfield High School. Rico sees the potential for women to be in the NFL.

“It might be because of the inexperience or the training. At that level, it is pretty tough. I think in time, there might be one. Because just recently, a young lady got a scholarship for kicking. It’s going to happen sooner or later,” Rico said.

That young lady Rico mentions is Becca Longo. She was the first woman to receive a scholarship to play football. She is a kicker for Adams State University in Colorado and started playing during the 2017-2018 season.

Bleacher Report posted an article of Longo with the title, Is This NFL’s First Female Player?, and The Fumble, a YouTube sports news account, posted a video with the title, Becca Longo Could be the First Woman to Ever Play in the NFL.

But only one woman has been to the NFL Scouting Combine so far.

In 2013, Lauren Silberman tried out at the NFL Combine, where college football players showcase their skills in front of coaches, general managers and scouts. According to NFL.com, the only requirement to attend the combine that year was to pay the $275 fee and provide proof of eligibility for the NFL draft.

Silberman tried out as a kicker, and it did not go so well. Hnida said Silberman’s experience before the tryout was being part of a club soccer team.

“It was a little bit surprising to see someone who has never kicked a football in a game try out for the NFL,” Hnida said.

Hnida says when the time comes when a woman joins the NFL, that woman will have played in high school and college football. She says any woman “would have to go up the ranks the same way the guys do.”

“In order to get a woman in the NFL, it’s going to take someone who really loves it and is passionate and good enough and willing to put in all the work for it,” Hnida said. “Getting to the NFL is so hard for a man, let alone, a woman. I think we forget that sometimes. These guys are the best of the best who play football.”

In the NFL, an average football player is 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs close to 250 pounds.

“I personally don’t feel there are any tangible restrictions stopping women from playing in the NFL. There is a strict criterion for players in the NFL, most apparent being the physical aspect of the game,” Long said.

Long says he can’t imagine a woman of the size of the average NFL player having the “athleticism, strength, speed and balance needed to even make an NFL team.”

In comparison to athletic women, the average height and weight for the London 2012 Olympian female weightlifters is 5 feet 6 inches tall and 219 pounds.

Female Olympic boxers are required to make weight in their three divisions. They can weigh as low as 106 pounds and as high as 165 pounds.

But 5-foot-6, 130-pound Antoinette Harris does not believe her size is a limitation.

Harris, a free safety for East Los Angeles College, says men “always say it’s a man’s sport.” But Harris says women are capable, they just need to believe in themselves.

“There hasn’t been a woman in the NFL due to the fact that no woman has ever really tried to go that far. And plus, they always tell women it’s too rough,” Harris said.

Harris says the NFL is actually more lenient than college football. She says college football is rougher and more injuries occur.

“In the NFL, they don’t want you doing certain tackles. They don’t want you to hit somebody too hard,” Harris said. “So now I think the NFL is making it little easier to get in.”

Harris has an idea of when the first woman will play in the NFL: “When I graduate from college.”